Messages and Mediums
Greta was inconsolable after her five-year-old son, Karl, was killed in a car crash. Greta and her husband, Reinhold, went to support groups and to individual and couples counseling. Yet nothing, not even medication, seemed to help. Finally, at the advice of another grieving parent, they made an appointment with a local psychic medium. The psychic told her that there was a beautiful field that Karl wished to enter but he could not until he had permission from his mother since her intense grief was keeping him in a waiting area. Greta told Karl that she would be okay, and he could now enter the meadow. The psychic then described Karl’s wonderment as he began to enter the field. Reinhold was very skeptical but relieved that Greta’s mood had lifted.
In the previous chapter, we discussed those extraordinary experiences where individuals struggling with grief often find comfort in spontaneous experiences where they have a direct or indirect sense of contact with their deceased child. Yet, for the large number of persons who do not have such spontaneous encounters, another alternative is to seek contact through a psychic medium.
Since recorded history began, individuals have consulted seers, prophets, mediums, and psychics assumed to have the gift of precognition—that is, the ability to see the future—or in many cases, a related ability to contact and communicate with the dead. Such communications are addressed in most all mythologies. They are a continued device in literature and theater as evident in Shakespeare’s plays and more current hits such as The Sixth Sense, Hereafter, or Ghost.
Perhaps it is best to begin with some basic definitions. Psychics are individuals who claim to have extrasensory perception that allows them to access information in ways such as clairvoyance, telepathy, precognition, or other such abilities that are beyond the range of the five human senses (taste, smell, touch, sight, and hearing). Since these abilities are beyond that range, they are sometimes referred to as a sixth sense. Mediums claim the ability to channel communication from the dead. All mediums are psychics but not all psychics are mediums.
Nor do all mediums work in the same way. Most today would probably be what can be called mental mediums. Here, they channel information in a fully conscious or awake state. Others are trance mediums in that they go into some sort of a sleeplike or semiconscious state to convey information. Finally, there are physical mediums. These generally hold séances where there are physical actions such as voices heard, objects levitating, or other activities such as windows opening and closing. In the clients I have seen, all of them visited mental mediums. While polls have shown that significant proportions of the general public believe in mediums, psychics, and extrasensory perception (ESP), there is little, if any, scientific validation of such claims.
We need to look at such phenomena in a larger social context. Dr. Tony Walter,149 a British sociologist, reminds us of two significant factors. First, many cultures have historically believed in communicating with or for the dead. East Asians generally venerate ancestors. Among many indigenous cultures, communication with ancestors is also common. For example, among the Shona of Zimbabwe, prayers are made to the dead ancestors (two generations prior) through the more recent dead. In contemporary Catholicism and Orthodoxy, one prays to deceased saints in order to intercede for deceased relatives. Dr. Walter does note that in Judaism and Protestantism, as well as among secular materialists, there is no perception that we can contact dead spirits. In addition, biblical injunctions forbid the use of mediums in the Mosaic Law. For example, Deuteronomy 18:10–11 states: “There shall not be found among you any one who … practices divination, a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or necromancer.” 150 These laws generally are continued in all Christian denominations while other requirements of Mosaic Law, such as dietary laws, are no longer held.
Second, Dr. Walter reminds us as well that, beyond communication with the spirit of the dead person, there are other, well-accepted ways that the dead speak. The dead body speaks to us in autopsies—clarifying information about the causes of death. The dead person speaks to us in the voices of eulogists, writers of obituaries, and in wills and trusts—validating their own lives and rewarding and remembering past relationships. To Dr. Walter, thinking that the spirit can yet speak is simply an extension of such a belief.151
A Brief Historical Note
From the earliest recorded histories, seers and psychics are evidenced. Astrology, for example, dates back to at least 2000 BC in Babylon.152 Seers, astrologists, and other psychics were generally respected in the ancient world. They often served as advisors, priests, and judges in the ancient world—frequently counseling kings, emperors, and other rulers. The Roman Emperor Tiberius generally relied on the astrologer Thrasyllus to offer advice.153 And many rulers in ancient times consulted the Oracle at Delphi.
Even the Bible includes the story of the Medium or Witch of Endor who King Saul asks to place him in contact with the late prophet Samuel. There is irony in the story as King Saul expelled all the wizards and mediums from Israel. Nonetheless, the woman is treated respectfully in the account. She does conjure up the spirit of Samuel, but Samuel predicts both the defeat of his army and Saul’s personal death as a result of a forthcoming battle with the Philistines—a traditional enemy of Israel. Naturally distressed by the encounter, the medium comforts Saul and insists he and his party take nourishment before they leave.154
It should also be noted that a belief in mediums and their ability to contact dead spirits is associated with a number of belief systems. These include Vodun, Voodoo, Spiritualism, and many New Age beliefs.
While psychics existed from ancient times through the modern era, spiritualists and mediums flourished in the 1800s and early 1900s. This was a golden age for mediums. Mediums and other psychics often filled large halls when they appeared in towns. Some psychics such as Edgar Cayce, who claimed his many psychic abilities included the ability to speak to the dead, became both famous and influential. Among his clients were President Woodrow Wilson, Thomas Edison, Irving Berlin, and George Gershwin. The philosopher-psychologist William James, a Harvard professor and the founder of the Pragmatic school of philosophy, believed in the power of mediums. He publicly attested that the trance medium Leonora Piper knew information in her trance state that she could have not personally known in a wakened state.
Even Harry Houdini, who would later become a vehement opponent of mediums, early on in his career included a medium segment with his wife, Bess, in his act. During the 1800s, Spiritualist churches were founded and prospered in both the United States as well as the United Kingdom. In addition, a number of prominent spiritualists, mediums, and psychics founded the Theosophical Society which blended spiritualism with Eastern mysticism. The movement peaked in the immediate aftermath of World War I. Here, the large death toll—both from war and diseases such as the Spanish influenza and typhus—caused the premature deaths of many young men and women. Thousands sought solace from contact with the deceased through mediums. Even after Houdini’s death, one of his investigators, Rose Mackenburg, continued his crusade—especially with those mediums who sought to gain advantage in the aftermath of World War II and the Korean War.155
Yet success brought scrutiny. Harry Houdini, and after his death, Rose Mackenburg, made it a personal crusade to expose fraudulent mediums. Newspapers soon followed. That attention uncovered widespread fraud—causing many mediums to leave the stage and live a quieter, sometimes closeted existence.
However, since the 1960s, there has been another revival of interest in mediums. Part of the reason seems to be an aspect of a cultural shift that has placed more attention on eclectic forms of spirituality. Part, too, has been some of the changes in our understanding of grief. In general, we have moved away from the old Freudian notion that grief work involves withdrawing emotional ties to the deceased and reinvesting in others. We now understand that persons retain a continuing bond with the deceased—meaning that we retain an ongoing connection throughout our life with those now deceased with whom we had significant relationships.156 Generally, we do so through memories and the ways they have influenced our lives. Dr. Dennis Klass, a professor emeritus at Webster College, also found that when a child dies, parents retain an inner representation of the child.157 In other words, if a child dies at six years of age, even a decade later, parents may have an image of the child, who would now be sixteen-years old, envisioning what the child might now be doing and even how the child might look. With the development of both these trends, seeking a medium in grief has become more acceptable. And while there are no hard numbers of how many bereaved parents or other bereaved individuals seek out mediums, Dr. Tony Walter suggests it might be around one out of fifteen, though likely higher in bereaved parents.158
The Work of Psychic Mediums
While research has generally found that for most persons, a spontaneous extraordinary experience may facilitate the grieving process, there is typically only anecdotal research on the implications of such contact induced by a medium.159 In fact, as we noted earlier, there is little research indicating who seeks out mediums and in what circumstances, though anecdotal accounts seem to indicate it may be more common amongst bereaved parents. Dr. Julie Beischel, director of research at the Windbridge Research Center, suggests that seeking mediums may also appeal to people who are fearful of more spontaneous contact, as well as those who desire such contact but have not received it in any spontaneous manner.160
Generally, people who seek out mediums want varied reassurances. At a very basic level, they wish to know there is some form of life after death and that their deceased loved one is okay. Once this is established, they may need additional validation.
Dr. Beischel found that bereaved individuals seek out four forms of information. First, they seek validation—both of the deceased’s personal characteristics and experiences that allow the bereaved individual to affirm that they are in contact with the deceased, as well as an indication that the deceased still survives in some mode of consciousness. Second, they may want some commentary from the deceased on their own experiences and grief reactions since the death.
For example, Greta, in the opening of the chapter, expressed great relief that her young son, Karl, was entering a beautiful afterlife. In addition, her husband, Reinhold, though skeptical, was thankful that Karl’s affirmation that his mother’s intense grief was constraining him in the afterlife, seemed to help Greta continue in spite of her great loss. He later told their therapist that the visit was a turning point in her grief. Karl’s message to his mother is not uncommon. Often the message is a variation of “I am okay, and you must go on with your life.” Yet, however simple the message may be, it still seems to bring solace.
Yet, some individuals who are grieving may want more. They may seek a direct message. In some cases, it may be a validation that they are truly in contact with the deceased. As Harry Houdini was dying, he supposedly shared a secret word with his wife, Bess. The reason was that if any mediums contacted her professing to have a message from her husband, she would know immediately if it had authenticity. Houdini was fearful that spiritualists and mediums might use his death to seek legitimacy so damaged by his ongoing campaign. He feared that they might contact his grieving wife with messages. By giving her a secret word, she could evaluate and, if appropriate, debunk any such claims
Second, bereaved individuals may seek direct advice or some form of explanation from the deceased. Ciara sought out her medium whenever faced with major decisions such as whether to sell their home or to take on a new teaching position.
Luann needed explanations. Luann, for example, could not understand why her sixteen-year-old son, Tom, died by suicide. To her, Tom had everything going for him. He was bright, active in sports, and popular. Her medium advised her that Tom shared he was struggling with depression and thus plunged his car into a lake. The medium also shared that Tom regretted the action and tried to escape but could not. Even though the information seemed contrary to details in the autopsy report (Tom never unbuckled his seatbelt), Luann both accepted and took comfort in both the explanation and the report of an attempt to escape.
Third, Dr. Beischel found individuals who were seeking some form of reassurance.161 In some cases, it may be that the deceased is now fully free from pain. Bella’s mother died from osteogenic sarcoma—bone cancer. She died in agony while Bella felt helpless that she could not provide substantive relief. The medium was able to reassure Bella that her mother was now no longer in pain and appreciated all her efforts. The latter comment was especially reassuring to Bella as she had not shared such efforts with the medium and was unclear if her mom was even aware of Bella’s attempts to make her last moments more comfortable.
For Andy, the reassurance was more spiritually oriented. He wished to reaffirm that there was some form of survival after death and that his brother was, in fact, on another plane of existence.
Finally, it may be an opportunity to finish business with the deceased—to say something unsaid or do something undone at the time of the death.162 Tony Walter, in his work, shared the account of a woman who had a difficult relationship with her mother. A single session with a medium alleviated her guilt.163
Robin Wooffitt, a professor of sociology at the University of York, found similar results in his research, in addition to information identifying the deceased and showing continuing connections—that the deceased was aware, and often approving of changes in the survivor’s life.164
How do mediums claim to work? Research indicates that mediums state that they receive information from a variety of sources.165 Many will describe multisensory impressions. The medium simultaneously sees images, hears voices, feels the energy or the personality of the deceased or, as they often prefer, “spirit” or “entity.” Others will report visual images in their “mind’s eye”—seeing names or other images. Another reported source is auditory messages in the mind’s ear. Often, these words have no meaning to them until they are interpreted by the client or “sitter.” Mediums also report feeling the deceased’s final ailments. They also report smelling fragrances associated with the deceased or an ability to empathize with the deceased. Finally, mediums report that they are able to sense the alteration of affect—as it moves between positive and negative.
Why does their work require different explanations? 166 One explanation used by mediums is that consciousness survives after physical death and that mediums can tap into that consciousness. Second, some mediums profess that all information is stored, and psychics are able to access that information, which is otherwise hidden from most. A third explanation is the mediums and other psychics are gifted. Just as some people are born blessed with good looks or high intelligence, extrasensory perception is simply another gift that is distributed to the few. Many psychics would hold that many people may be so gifted; some even believe we all might possess these gifts to some degree, but they remain unrecognized, unused, and even, in some cultures or families, viewed as demonic or otherwise discouraged.167
A final question might be: is the work of mediums effective? Research here is mixed. Some studies have found support for such claims while others have not.168 In general, perhaps the lesson simply is that certain mediums do seem to possess information that cannot be fully explained by ordinary sensory experiences.
This has been my experience. As I travel, I often have downtime to tour different cities. There have been a few times that out of curiosity, and perhaps even boredom, I have entered a New Age bookstore that offered readings. Most of the time, I felt the person in the store was fishing—seeking out my motivations. Was I having marital differences or dissatisfaction with my employment?
One time, though, was truly haunting. Once again, it was that young delinquent, Mark, I had mentored in my college years. Somehow, even after his death, any psychic experiences I have had seemed associated with him.
As soon as I sat down with this medium in a city far from home, she indicated that there was a boy with the letter “M” who sought contact. I first stated Michael—my (quite living) son. She said it was not him. Clearly it was not, she replied, even without knowing that Mike was alive. In fact, she noted that. She queried if Michael was named for a little brother that died, as she felt it was more like a sibling relationship. All of sudden, I began to think of Mark—a boy I worked with in my college years as in a delinquency prevention program. In fact, the agency described our role as being “big brothers” or role models—offering an alternative to the delinquent behavior that the children were drifting toward.
She continued. She noted that I often felt guilty that I did not offer him enough guidance. That was true; I often wondered if I were not away at college, could I have done more to help him deal with his many issues—school problems, family issues, delinquent behaviors, and drug use. She said that I should not feel guilty as Mark deeply appreciated all my efforts as well as the role I was playing in his young son’s life. That, too, was a bit of a shock as I never mentioned that he had a child, that I was the boy’s godfather, and that since Mark’s death I had been very involved in his son’s life.
She then shared that Mark looked out for me. She then asked, “Did you know he saved your life?” Here, my skepticism returned as I asked her how he had done so. It was unclear, she said. But she saw a road—a country route. It had a number. She could make out the second number as a “7” but the first was unclear—it was a straight rather than curved number—perhaps a 1, 4, or 7. It was late, and I dozed off as I was driving. He woke me just in time to correct my lane. If not, I would have plowed into a truck.
All of a sudden, I fully remembered the incident. I was supposed to come into LaGuardia Airport in New York City around 5:00 p.m. and then drive on to another speaking engagement in Syracuse—slightly over a four-hour drive. Unfortunately, the plane was delayed and there were issues with luggage. Finally, I was ready to make the trip at about 10:00 p.m.—far later than planned. Ironically, I even thought about staying at Mark’s widow and my godson’s home, as it was near halfway on my trip. But I decided against it since my late arrival and early departure would be doubly disruptive. As I drove on NY Route 17, I could feel myself getting sleepy, but I pressed on with my journey. I do not remember falling asleep at the wheel, but I do remember a feeling of being jolted. Seeing I had wandered away from my lane, I quickly corrected the car and wisely stopped at a twenty-four-hour diner to get some caffeine. To this day, I remain perplexed about the medium’s comments and accurate description of an incident that I had never shared with anyone.
Mediums and Bereavement Counseling
Should you then seek out a medium? That is entirely your own choice. In my own counseling with grieving clients, it is a topic I never bring up, though I do ask if they have had any unusual experiences. If a client addresses the issue, the first question that I will usually ask is what they hope to gain from such an encounter. We might then explore the importance of that reason as well as alternate ways that the concern may be addressed
Are you seeking information that the deceased is now in a safe place? I might ask how your spiritual beliefs speak to that question. Do you need permission to move on with your life? How then do you think the deceased would answer? Are you seeking a message or advice? Again, knowing the deceased, how do you think the deceased would respond?
In other cases, you may be seeking a consultation with a medium in order to finish some business—perhaps simply to thank the person for the role they played in your life or perhaps there were personal issues still left unresolved at the time the deceased died. Here, I might explore other options to meet these needs. I might suggest speaking to an empty chair and then sitting in that chair and responding as you think the deceased might respond—this is the internalized other response already discussed. Another technique might simply be to write a letter to the deceased and read it at a special spot—perhaps the cemetery or any other place that has a meaningful connection with the deceased. For example, when I wish to feel close to my father, I always go to a park on the East River in Queens, New York. His grave has no special allure to me, but I treasure the times when he would come home from work when I was a little boy and take me on a short drive to the river to watch the boats.
Another option is to do some sort of therapeutic ritual. Two types of rituals seem especially appropriate here. One is what I call a ritual of affirmation.169 A ritual of affirmation is a rite where we simply say thanks for the legacies that we received from the deceased. I did such a ritual with Mark’s son. One of my favorite stories of Mark was that when he was younger, I often took him fishing with me. A city boy, he enjoyed being out in the country. Unfortunately, he had little patience. When his lure snagged on anything, he would just yank it till the line broke rather than try to gently free it by trying to loosen it from different angles. In short, he lost a number of lures. One day when we were fishing, he tossed about a dozen new lures in the tackle box. My immediate question was, “Are they hot [i.e., stolen]?” His answer, innocently delivered, was, “I would tell you if they were hot.” A central rule in the relationship was that we would be honest with one another. I let the matter rest. About five years later, he confessed that the lures were shoplifted. I was angry and accused him of breaking our honesty pact. He reminded me he hadn’t broken it. He simply stated that he would tell me if they were stolen—but he never said when he would tell me.
If you knew Mark, that was what might be called a signature story—one that captured Mark’s essence. I told the story at Mark’s funeral. It remains one of my godson’s favorite stories about his dad. One day, when we were driving, I showed my godson the lake where we had that exchange. My godson, now around eight years old, wanted to see it. As we explored the shore, he found an old rusted lure; he decided it was a gift from his dad. We did a ritual around the lure. He gave me the lure, stating: “This is a gift from my dad, but the best gift I got from my dad was you.” I said the same thing as I returned the lure to him. He then tossed it into the weeds, saying, “Thanks dad!”
The other ritual is a ritual of reconciliation. Here, the goal of the ritual is to complete some unfinished business, such as to receive, offer, or exchange forgiveness. Brennan, for example, was deeply concerned that it had been a long time since he told his mother that he loved her. Brennan grew up in a traditional Irish American family, and his family was generally not particularly open to sharing emotions. His partner grew up in a family with very different rules—every conversation ended with a statement of love. He wanted to share that with his mom but, as he said, “I never had the courage or chance.” When she died of a sudden stroke, the need to share that was intense.
His mother loved white roses. So one Sunday, after a mass dedicated to her loving memory, he placed the flowers on her grave. In the presence of his partner and friends, he finally had the opportunity to express his love. The ritual was sufficient for him. He no longer had a need to do anything else.
Yet, if you are determined to seek out a medium, that remains your choice. At best, perhaps, you can create a therapeutic alliance together between you, your therapist, and the medium. I have seen instances where a few sessions with a medium were helpful. For example, one father, a non-custodial parent to his son, had intense guilt when the son, at nineteen, died from a drug overdose. Having been divorced from the mother since the child was very young, he felt he failed his son. In the sessions with the medium, he apologized to his son for his limited presence in this life. Conversations with the medium made him feel that his son both understood and forgave his limited role. This allowed him to work on the issues aroused by his loss.
So, if you are intending to take that step, I would advise you to carefully research the medium’s background. If you are involved in a support group, there may be others who have sought such contact. Perhaps they can offer referrals. Generally, I suggest clients avoid various telephone services such as psychic hotlines as they can be both unreliable and costly.
Also temper expectations. Any medium will admit sometimes they can feel a strong connection with the deceased, while in other cases the connection may not be clear or even exist. And, as with other professionals—be they doctors, dentists, or therapists—trust your own instincts. If the relationship does not feel right, it probably is not. It is best then to move on and find someone else.
As in any case of unregulated (and sometimes regulated) services, it is important that you are careful of any possibility of exploitation. I begin with the assumption that most people are both honest and sincere in offering services. Nonetheless, it is important to reach an agreement on the nature and cost of these services prior to beginning.
Beyond the possibility of exploitation, there may be other problems that can arise. For some, it may be spiritual dissonance. In other words, the descriptions of the afterlife or the spirituality of the medium may be at variance with your own spiritual beliefs, causing at least some level of discomfort. To some extent, Greta experienced that in her interaction with a medium. Greta and Reinhold identified as active Lutherans. Both the medium’s description of heaven as a meadow and the notion that her intense grief was a barrier to her son entering the afterlife did not mesh well with her religious beliefs.
Central to Greta’s beliefs, though, was a notion that while on earth, we see things dimly. This allowed Greta to hold views that some might find conflicting. As Greta described her feeling:
I do not quite understand what the medium described. It was different from my beliefs about heaven. But it may be that my son was, in some ways, held back from enjoying heaven because of my grief. I think the nature of faith is a mystery. We believe what we cannot really know with certainty. I do believe my son is in heaven with Jesus. I do find that as a comfort—though I miss him so much. (Greta breaks down here.) Perhaps it is all about metaphors—we see and explain things through our own beliefs. I do believe Karl is in heaven. I know my faith helps me get through this nightmare. I do believe that the visit to the medium helped—a lot. Perhaps when I die, I will understand it so much better.
Others may not cope well with such disparity. Again, should you experience such dissonance, you may wish further discussion with a counselor, clergy, or spiritual advisor.
You may also wish to discuss with your family whether to engage a medium. At a time when there is much grief and perhaps tension within the family, a unilateral decision to seek a medium may be a source of potential conflict. That conflict may center on spiritual differences or on the financial implications of such a choice, but it also may lead to other tensions as well. If there are serious disagreements about the value of the consult, it may cause other family members to be dismissive of any insights or understandings you may have gained from the consult—creating added tension at a difficult time.
This was certainly the case with Irene and Inge—two widowed sisters who now shared a home as well as caregiving tasks for their aging mother. When their mother died, both struggled with grief. Irene sought out a medium while Inge dismissed it as nonsense. Though they had been close, the conflict over the use of the medium and the legitimacy of the messages Irene received through the medium led to constant arguments—dividing the sisters and complicating their grief.
One final danger is that you may become overly dependent on the medium. It is one thing to take comfort from occasional visits to a medium. It is quite another to be too paralyzed to make a move without consulting your medium. One of the tasks of grief is to adjust to a life without the deceased. Continuing dependence through a medium will hinder that effort. In fact, research on psychic hotlines has found that for certain individuals this can become an addictive behavior similar to substance abuse. While there is no research yet on reliance on psychic mediums, we can assume that, at least in a segment of the population, such a danger might exist.170
In conclusion, as I noted in the previous chapter, Dr. Louis LaGrand indicated that we can identify messages from the deceased in the responses of others. We need also to remember that often we can discover messages in ourselves as we review the life and legacies of those whom we loved and lost.
149. Tony Walter, “Communicating with the Dead,” in Encyclopedia of Death and the Human Experience, ed. Clifton D. Bryant and Dennis L. Peck (Los Angeles, CA: Sage, 2009), 216-219; Tony Walter, “Mediator Deathwork,” Death Studies 29, no. 5 (June 2005): 383–412, https://doi.org/10.1080/07481180590932508.
150. Deuteronomy 18:10–11. (RSV).
151. Walter, “Communicating with the Dead,” 216-219; Walter, “Mediator Deathwork,” 383–412.
152. James Herschel Holden, A History of Horoscopic Astrology: From the Babylonian Period to the Modern Age (Tempe, AZ: American Federation of Astrologers, 1996), 1.
153. Chris Brennan, “Thrasyllus,” The Hellenistic Astrology Website, Updated March 27, 2014, https://www.hellenisticastrology.com/astrologers/thrasyllus/.
154. 1 Samuel 28:2–25 (RSV).
155. Tony Wolf, “The Female Ghost Buster Who Rooted Out Spiritual Fraud for Houdini,” Atlas Obscura, May 5, 2016, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-female-ghost-buster-who-rooted-out-spiritual-fraud-for-houdini.
156. Dennis Klass, Phyllis R. Silverman, and Steven L. Nickman, ed. Continuing Bonds: New Understandings of Grief (Washington, D. C.: Taylor and Francis, 1996), n.p.
157. Klass, Silverman, and Nickman. Continuing Bonds, 200.
158. Tony Walter, “Mourners and Mediums.” Bereavement Care 27, no. 3 (December 2008): 47–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/02682620808657727.
159. J. S. Parker, “Extraordinary Experiences of the Bereaved and Adaptive Outcomes of Grief,” Omega: Journal of Death and Dying 51, no. 4 (2005): 257–283, https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.2190/FM7M-314B-U3RT-E2CB. Parker found that these experiences generally assist bereaved persons in adapting to loss.
160. Julie Beischel, “Assisted After-Death Communication: A Self-Prescribed Treatment for Grief,” Journal of Near-Death Studies 32, no. 3 (2014): 161–165, https://www.academia.edu/34591692/Assisted_After-Death_Communication_A_Self-Prescribed_Treatment_for_Grief.
161. Beischel, “Assisted After-Death Communication,” 161–165.
162. Beischel, “Assisted After-Death Communication,” 161–165.
163. Walter, “Mourners and Mediums,” 47–50.
164. Robin Wooffitt, The Language of Mediums and Psychics: The Social Organization of Everyday Miracles (New York: Routledge, 2011), n.p.
165. Adam J. Rock, Julie Beischel, and Gary E. Schwartz, “Thematic Analysis of Research Mediums’ Experiences of Discarnate Communication,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 22, no. 2 (June 2008): 179–192, https://www.windbridge.org/papers/RockBeischelJSE%202008.pdf.
166. Rock, Beischel, and Schwartz, “Thematic Analysis of Research Mediums’,” 179–192.
167. “Does Everyone Have Psychic Ability?” Matt Fraser Psychic Medium, September 14, 2017, https://meetmattfraser.com/blog/does-everyone-have-psychic-ability/.
168. A good summary of such research can be found in Emily Williams Kelly and Dianne Arcangel. “An Investigation of Mediums Who Claim to Give Information About Deceased Persons,” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 199, no. 1 (January 2011): 11–17, https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0b013e31820439da.
169. Building on the work of van Gennep, van der Hart, and Rando, I have written extensively on therapeutic ritual. See, for example, Kenneth. J. Doka, Grief Is a Journey: Finding Your Path Through Loss. New York: Atria, 2016.
170. R. M. Shepherd, “Dangerous Consumptions Beyond the Grave: Psychic Hotline Addiction for the Lonely Hearts and Grieving Souls,” Addiction Research & Theory 17, no. 3 (July 2009): 278–290, https://doi.org/10.1080/16066350802474482.